It has occurred to me (partially because others have pointed it out) that humor happens when something absurd is presented to the brain. Therefore, people who care more about word usage would find puns funnier because the absurdity of the puns would be more acute.
I have a theory that most funny people are slightly disturbed in some way. The reason for this is that a theoretically normal person (no actual "normal" people exist) would not naturally have a point of view that picks out the absurd.
I also think that pessimists tend to be the funniest of people because the absurdity that they recognize is mostly negative. I am not sure why negative things are typically so funny, but they are. Optimists and Idealists can be funny, but they are usually better as the subjects of jokes rather than the creators or tellers of jokes. I don't know how realists play into this.
I have a further theory that you can figure out how a person is disturbed by the type of humor that they are drawn to. Please remember that I count myself among some of the dysfunctional descriptions described below. Please also remember that neither the list nor the descriptions are absolutely definitive.
- Slapstick will draw people who on some level enjoy others' discomfort.
- Satire will draw people who have a beef with someone or something and enjoy seeing it portrayed absurdly.
- Offensive humor will draw people who have a beef with someone or something and never mentally matured past the seventh grade.
- Stuffy humor will draw people who want to feel smarter than everyone else because they understand the subtle reference in the New Yorker comic that they just read.
- Puns will draw language nerds that are more concerned with how something is said than what is being said.
9 comments:
People are either funny or not. I don't think it has anything to do with personality type. I have known many funny people that fall into different personalities.
I usually find pessimist a bore, when it comes to the joke factor...think Downer Deb on SNL...unless you mean that they are fun to laugh at like BB. ;)
I think BB is funny because he has a pessimistic outlook in a lot of areas and likes to push it to absurdity for comedic value. Where he doesn't push it he isn't as funny.
My personal observation has been that even optimists, idealists, and realists have to go into the realm of pessimism (focus on the negative aspects of something) in order to be funny. You may have had different observations.
BB is a natural at being funny; he doesn't need formulas.
You are on to something, but please make your case about humor without using the optimist, idealist, realist, pessimist jargon. Talk about what makes a good joke and humor through differnent stages of life.
I actually added the RIPO comparison after I had written the rest of this because I thought it apt. I still think it is apt. I think that the major disagreement you always have is that I classify people as one specific thing, but my main goal is typically to classify motivations rather than things. It is just not as easy to describe an indealistic motivation as it is to describe an idealistic person.
"Talk about what makes a good joke and humor through differnent stages of life."
I will kind of talk about that to some degree tomorrow, but only indirectly. If you want to have discussion on that specifically it might be a good post on your site.
Loved this post, actually sent it to a friend as well. I think you have a point about humor, although, if you cannot pick out the humor in life (whether in your own stupidity, your neighbor's, or the government's) then you become bogged down in your own little pond of misery. If "normal" people aren't funny, god knows I don't want to be one of them...but then again, without the normal people, the rest of us wouldn't have nearly so much to laugh at.
Yeah, I don't think good humor is pegged to one specific personality type. I do, however, think a certain level of intelligence is involved. My friends and I used to [maybe somewhat jokingly snobbishly] refer to ourselves as having a "higher humor." We like the sarcastic wit, making fun of things, delighting in the ironies of life. We would say it would take a little bit more to make us life, i.e. NOT slapstick.
Although, I laugh when I see people trip. I think the absurdity factor is an interesting point. Things that are absurd, ironic, or people and circumstances in absurd circumstances (whatever that means) are funny.
Making fun (whilst being mindful of feelings yet knowing not to take oneself seriously) is pretty good too.
In conclusion, I don't know. I think I'm funny.
www.jenslog.com
why'd i just put my blog up? Now i'm going to have to go put something funny up. Crap.
Where does the good ol' Knock knock Joke fall out?
Yeah I have to admit that what I find funny doesn't fit into your categories....got any more? I'd really like to find out what kind of beef I have, and possibly who it's with, that makes up my sense of humor! :) lol :)
Where's the Beef?
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